EPIDEMIC

摘要

David Farber, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon Univer-sity, was sitting down to lunch with his wife at Taqueria Moroleon, a Mexican restaurant in Kennett Square, Pa., on Aug. 21, when his cell phone started vibrating. An e-mail had landed in his cell-phone inbox. Yet as soon as he had cleared the e-mail, the phone vibrated again. And again. And again. He could hardly get a bite in edgewise. Farber was yet another victim of a now-famous computer virus, called SoBig, that turned computers worldwide into drones pumping out millions of e-mails bearing malicious code. It was a digital snowball effect. Far-ber's conclusion: "We're losing the battle against computer viruses." Indeed, to those most affected, it seems as if this summer's onslaught of viruses has reached epidemic proportions. Since early August, the world's computer systems have been blitzed by hundreds of viruses―some of them real doozies. On Aug. 11, the Blaster virus and related bugs struck, hammering dozens of corporations, including Air Canada's reservation and airport check-in systems. Ten days later, the SoBig virus took over, causing delays in freight traffic at rail giant csx Corp. and shutting down more than 3,000 computers belonging to the city of Fort Worth. Worldwide, 15% of large companies and 30% of small companies were affected by SoBig, according to virus software tracker TruSecure Corp. Market researcher Computer Economics Inc. estimates damage will total $2 billion―one of the costliest viruses ever. All told, damage from viruses may amount to more than $13 billion this year.